The Lost Children
by warinbabylon
Summary: Title has a double meaning; it'll become clear as the story progresses. Everyone has an inner child that loves all that is right in the Universe. What happens when you knowingly make it mature? Story now Completed
1. Prologue

_Maturity is a process not an endpoint. Every individual in every species travels their own road to their own end. _

- _Fifth Doctor's diary, 950 years._

Tegan ran at the head of the crowd, leading two children by the hand. The Doctor was close behind her flock, carrying a young boy and shepherding several others. Turlough brought up the rear with two of the gun toting guards. The sound of blaster fire was drawing closer and to Tegan, it was like an approaching horde of the hounds of hell. The child that the Doctor held was crying and the rest were obviously too scared to make a sound. 

The TARDIS loomed large in front of her in the dark of the station's wing. It was obvious that the battle had waged here; the sides of the familiar blue box wore new scars, burns and dents. With a shout to the others to hurry, she reached its front and released one of the girls. As the young one whimpered and buried her face in Tegan's legs, the woman struggled with her extra key and slipped it into the door. It opened inward and she, not too kindly, but with gentleness, ushered her brood inside. The Doctor reached the door after her, handing his crying child to her and turned to yell to the others to hurry.

"Get the children inside, Tegan and away from the console. We'll have to leave quickly, I'm afraid."

She nodded and disappeared back inside. The Doctor threw back his head to stare at his other companion and the straggling children and guards that were bearing down on the TARDIS. "Time to leave!" he shouted.

Turlough and the last two guards turned, obviously abandoning the tact of fighting off the advancing war faction, and ran for the TARDIS. The Doctor stepped to the side, allowing those running toward him to hurtle into its strange vast dark. As Turlough pressed past him, he saw a lone boy of maybe five running at full speed, slow in comparison to the adults, towards the TARDIS. He wordlessly held out his hand and the boy slid into and against his tall stature. Laser fire whizzed past him as the Time Lord turned and all but threw the young boy into the TARDIS and followed him in. 

The door slammed shut and was soon followed by the wheezing, groaning sound of a TARDIS slipping back into its temporal vortex existence

Just as the advancing guard arrived on its spot.

**

Inside the TARDIS, the situation was a little calmer. The adults were leaning on various pieces of furniture and consoles, regaining their breath; the children were spread throughout the room, but mostly were clinging to Tegan. They sniffled, whimpered and moaned. The only being not noticeably winded by the situation that the small band had just experienced was the Doctor. He leaned into the console and was delicately adjusting the instrumentation.

"These short jumps are harder to accurately accomplish than going thousands of hundreds of light years," he mumbled. "But, with a little luck and a lot of skill, we should end up just where we want to be."

The only thing that seemed out of place was the small boy that clung to the Doctor's leg. The lad had his face pressed into the side of the Doctor's hip, occasionally drying his tears on the linen fabric. The Doctor moved slowly about the console, doing his tasks without disturbing the boy. As the final adjustments were made, the Doctor nodded and stood tall. 

Tegan called over to her friend and his new little shadow. "Doctor? I could take the children to the bathroom and get them something to eat."

"A splendid idea, Tegan," he answered, slipping his hands, gently into his pockets and dislodging the young lad's face from his hip. "Turlough, Jones, Trenton? I'll maintain the TARDIS in stasis to give us time to recover and eat and materialize almost immediately after the time that we left in the other part of the station. It'll give the children some time to calm; they've been through a tremendous amount and their parents shouldn't see them as disheveled as they are. Pleaseaccompany Tegan and get some food."

The men nodded and left, Turlough lastly, following the girls and young boys as they filed behind the guards, into the corridor. As the door slid shut, Turlough was seen running to the front to act as guide to the mentioned rooms. 

When it seemed that the boy holding the Doctor's leg would not let go or open his eyes, which had been shut since he entered the TARDIS, Tegan walked over slowly to kneel by the console and her friend.

"Don't be afraid," she cooed, her voice quiet and her accent weak. "We've some cordial and sorbet here in the TARDIS and fruit and bread and meat. You must be starvingwhy don't you come with me and the others."

The child's eyes opened at the sound of her voice and he appeared in shock. His breathing was slow and his brown eyes were wide as saucers. Suddenly he released the Doctor's pants leg and turned like a whirlwind to face the kneeling woman. The tears on his face went unnoticed for the moment and his light child voice was loud as he shouted: "Momma!" and hurtled himself at Tegan. "Momma!"

Tegan's mouth fell open and she, in shock, reached out to enfold the now openly crying boy in her arms. She blinked several times and then lifted her eyes to gaze at her friend. The Doctor returned her shocked gaze with an equally shocked one of his own.


	2. Chapter 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Temporal paradox? What is a temporal paradox, you ask, my boy? It is confusion, befuddlement, temporal mud and slime. Mind my words, Chesterton, temporal paradox is not a game to be played nor an idea to be formulated. Leave it well enough alone. One cannot change history. One should never even contemplate the notion.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

- _First Doctor to Ian Chesterton_

Part 1

24 hours earlier

First Communications Officer Alan Smith was working the end of his shift, restlessly waiting for the clock to announce the proverbial 'changing of the guard'. His stomach was growling, his mind was aching and he was quite sure that his feet had rebelled hours ago. There had been no activity this night as there had been no activity on any night so long as he had worked the evening shift. And he had worked the evening shift for so long that he had ceased to say how long it had been. He wanted his supper, he wanted his wife, his son and his bed, not necessarily in that order, but at that moment, his mind was unable to formulate exactly what order he did want them in.

The door behind him opened and a smallish man of passably forty entered. Without turning around, Smith called out a greeting.

"Hallo, yourself, Smith," George Trenton answered, closing the door soundly. "I'd ask if there was anything that I needed to know, but I'm sure that nothing has changed since I went off duty two days ago."

"And you'd be correct," Smith called back with a smile. "Something needs to be said for consistency, I suppose."

Trenton laughed. "Well let me log in and then you can get on home. Lord knows that wife of yours'll be eager to see you."

George strolled forward and picked up his headset and with a flourish of a man accustomed to the action, he slid it soundly on his head. His fingers deftly flew over the buttons of the computer system. With a grimace, he mouthed along with the voice on his headset:

"Welcome to the Genesis Project Station Communications System. Please state your name, rank and position, your time and place of log on will be recorded."

He cleared his throat and said: "George Trenton, Second Officer Communications Branch, third shift monitor."

"Thank you-"

The computer voice was cut out immediately and he leaned forward with alarm. Smith did the same, nearly toppling out of his chair as he did so. An electronic screech sounded and a loud announcement was made in a masculine voice as opposed to the friendly female voice that had been heard a moment previously. "Communications outage in the personnel wing. I repeat communications outage in the personnel wing. Outage includes video, audio and electronic tracking."

"Shit," Smith shouted above the din in his ears.

Trenton held up his hand to stop his friend as the voice continued. "Security breached. I repeat, security breached. Alpha level."

Both men glanced at each other and then, in unison, pulled off their headsets and pulled out their guns. Although neither one was well trained in their use, it didn't matter. The personnel wing was where their families were.

**

There was a whining in the air like a young child who has its toys willingly withheld and a section of the precise recycled air on the station gave birth to a two meter tall blue box. As it settled, the sound level was returned to normal except for the far off wail of red alert. Inside there was an impossibly large console room with three decidedly worn out travelers. The eldest one slipped a hand in his pocket and rubbed at his head, ruffling his hair, with his other hand. "Now THAT shouldn't have happened."

"Now what?" the woman asked. She wore a dress of splotchy color and a pair of brilliant red heels. Her auburn hair, closely and smartly cropped to her head, was a direct contrast to her elder companion's wispy longish blond hair. It was, however, akin to the head of copper hair that the younger male companion sported. Both of the younger companions leaned on the console and waited: one eagerly, one resignedly for the forthcoming explanation and apology.

"Our landing here, of course," the Doctor answered. He lifted his weary blue eyes to fix the woman with a stare. "We shouldn't have been able to materialize, here, Tegan. At least, not now, that is."

Tegan Jovanka crossed her arms over her chest and turned to the younger male. "What's he on about now, Turlough?"

Although she had hoped for an explanation of an easier level to comprehend, it was not forthcoming. Turlough unbuttoned his school coat and loosened his tie as he walked forward to join the Doctor at the console. Although the boy was no Time Lord, he did have a fairly good grasp of temporal mechanics and higher math. He was also an expert at fudging knowledge when he didn't have it. "Why not, Doctor?"

"Well" he lifted his eyes from the console to adjust a small knob on the third side of the console. "For one, my bio data is already present. This sensor here," the Time Lord tapped at a small flashing light, "is attuned to my data and locates it. It helps her to keep a firm connection with me. She has found the data, external to her dimensions as well as internally. For another, there should be nothing solid here to materialize on or in."

Tegan leaned more into the console. "You mean something's here that shouldn't be? And" she bit her lip. "If your bio data is already present, that would mean one or more of you is/are already herewouldn't that cause"

"Limitation Effect if it's by mistake. If not, we are both meant to be here, then, the TARDIS'll take the temporal strain. It has before." The Doctor sighed. 

Turlough nodded. "Sounds rightsounds like that business we went through with the Brigadier a while ago."

"Quite right, Turlough," the Doctor called out, turning around to snatch his hat from the stand behind him. Tegan lowered her arms in shock. 

It was Turlough that called out the question, however: "Shouldn't we leave then? If this is a mistake, the results could be disastrous."

The Doctor smiled at his companion and reached over to activate the door. "Exhilarating, isn't it, Turlough, to walk on the edge. I'm going to find out what this is all about. Coming?"

Tegan grimaced, but rounded the console in time to follow the Doctor through the portal. Turlough remained behind for a moment but then pulled his tie tighter and followed along behind his two friends. "Exhilarating isn't the word I would use, Doctor," he muttered. 

**

Tegan was standing some distance from the doors, glancing around at the area in which the TARDIS had materialized. She could barely see more than twenty feet away due to the gloom around them, but what she could see convinced her that they were in a large, empty metal coffin. The Doctor strode across to her, his steps light. He appeared to float a little away from the ground with each stride. 

"We're in an area of reduced gravity," he explained. Although Tegan had noticed that her strides were longer than usual, it was seeing him walk in the same manner that drove the point home. "A space station."

"Did you at least figure out the time we are in?" she asked.

"Tegan. Of course, I have. We're in 2172."

"You know it amazes me that you can tell time in that thing at all," she answered back. "But you don't know where."

"In the area of Mars."

"Mars is it?" Turlough answered, joining them. "2172? And this has to be Terranmust be one of the first space stations."

"Interesting, isn't it," the Doctor answered. "I wonder which oneand I wonder why one of my other selves is here."

"Are you sure that sensor is accurate?" Tegan called to the Doctor's receding back. 

"Yes."

"Then where's your other self?"

"I intend to find out!"

**

A lone man moved down the hall, a small cylinder held in his hand like a talisman to ward off evil. His coat, depending on the color of light he walked under muted from black to bottle green to brown or midnight blue. His gray pants and waist coat, however, just simply shone. As he turned another corner, the man tilted his cylinder toward another door and, after a period of a high pitched whine, the door slid open. 

Undeterred, and certainly not impressed with the trickery, the man strode over the door lip and into another corridor. He adjusted the setting on the cylinder with both hands after juggling the bundle he held in his other arm into a sturdy position. As he passed under a sounding alarm, he waved the cylinder and the sound was cut out immediately.

In the silence that followed he nodded, pleased. "Much better. Nowif I remember correctlythe personnel wingis that way."

He started down the corridor and began to walk at a quicker pace. As he entered the main personnel wing, he spied a pair of uniformed men herding, leading, children at gunpoint. They spotted him quickly. As they approached, they seemed to tower over the compact man. "Hands up."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Hands up."

"They appear to be in use at the moment. However, once they finish their assigned task, I'm quite sure that they would be happy to oblige." The words were offered with a polite smile.

"We've a smart one, here. Put that boy down and put your hands up. We're going to take that kid."

The man lowered the child to the ground, his eyes trained on the blaster which was as much trained on the boy as it was on him. When the child was on the ground and being gently shook awake by his protector. "Michaelyou must stand on your own feet. Wake up."

The boy blinked his eyes open and gazed at the warm blue eyes of the man that knelt next to him. "Uncle?"

"Remember how your mother told you tales of her adventures with me?" the man asked, glancing up at the guard. Seeing a menacing glare, he hurried his words. "Do you?"

"Yes, Uncle." The boy stared up at the guard. He quickly processed what was going on. 

The man stood up, making sure the boy was steady. "We'll have to part ways now. Like it seemed I always did with your mother." He reached down to brush the boy's black hair out of his eyes. "But I'll find you. I always found your mother. Do as this man says, Mike, please. For me."

Michael nodded and released the man's hand. As he moved away, he turned around and glanced at the man. The man's blue eyes looked haunted. Knowing the boy needed something from him, he smiled, his thick lips gently curving. 

The Doctor watched as the boy was turned and hurried down the hall with other children his age. He brushed agitatedly at the single cinnamon colored hair curl that fell into his eyes. But he had little time to watch the boy to insure his safety. The last thing the Time Lord, now comfortably comfortable in his eighth incarnation, saw was the butt of a gun aimed for his head. The resounding smack of the metal against his skull almost drowned out the sound of the alarms.

Almost. But not quite. 

The guard stepped over the man's fallen body and strode down the hall after the children and his partner.


	3. Chapter 2

Notes: This story was written while I was going through my qualifiers for my doctoral program last year. I was doing a lot of questioning. So, unfortunately, the story might be a little less than happy and maybe a little deep. Someone asked about the quotes at the beginning of the chapters. I made those up too.  
  
Disclaimer: It all belongs to BBC. I just use it to stretch the imagination. I don't make any money from this.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Morality? A discourse on morality? You stand here and give me. Me! A lecture on morality, Zoe? It should rather be legality, young lady. Something might be illegal, but it can be as far from immoral as can be. Do not confuse the two. Illegal is a commentary on a species' ability to level laws to construct their society; immoral is something like a crime against self. Society- self two concepts as different as your Sun and your Moon. Now, run along.find Jamie.  
  
Second Doctor to Zoe.  
  
Smith back wheeled as he came around the corner into the personnel wing. Trenton followed him into the wide corridor and skirted to one side. A simple gasp and not a physical recoil, however, managed his shock. The corridor, and what rooms they could see, were torn apart. Items of errant clothing, broken furniture, and scattered food supplies all spilled from the doors and littered the hallway like the remnants of a wild party.  
  
Or a ransacked and seized castle.  
  
Trenton ran forward, passing Smith who still stood his mouth agape. "Angela!"  
  
Smith followed suit. At the other end of the hall the other door slid open to show the rather small, but efficient security force that was stationed on the Genesis Project. Trenton waved to them and continued down the hall. With an equally loud voice, Smith was calling for his wife: "Georgie!"  
  
The corridor filled with men scrambling along, carrying guns and sticking heads in various doors. Smith made for the third door on the left immediately, wedging open the door with his body weight. The lighting was sparse and the hallway was washed in red as he stumbled back into the space leading his wife by the hand. She was as tall as he was, her brown hair matching the dull jumpsuit that she wore. Georgia held her head in her free hand, and her face was a mask of pain.  
  
A short search of the area produced ten wives and three complete couples.  
  
But no children.  
  
And one unconscious strangely dressed stranger.  
  
**  
  
"Through here, Trisk, move it."  
  
The solider bringing up the rear waved his gun over the heads of the children and all but prodded them with the business end of it as they piled through a service corridor. Four of the twelve children were crying, two were in hysterics and the others appeared to be too much in shock to do much more than march. The last child, the unaccountable, as Elaine Trisk had come to call the child, was the strange one. It walked with an air of calm and arrogance that only the most arrogant young children possessed.  
  
"Ah.hold up, Marw."  
  
Marw reached down to grab one of the young girls about the shoulder and nearly threw her over the door threshold. "Too much heart, that is what you have. Move it!"  
  
"But."  
  
"But nothing, Trisk.the only thing that matters is the Great Plan.the Great Assistance, which these chattel will help us accomplish."  
  
Trisk nodded. She had signed onto this mission because she believed in the Plan. She believed in the Church.Eternal Light. She believed it with all her soul.  
  
Looking down at the children she tried to forget their small questioning faces and trust. They were abominations. Cursed. Chattel, indeed.  
  
Turning, Elaine glanced over her shoulder to check their backs and shoved one of the children over the door threshold.  
  
**  
  
"If I remember correctly," the Doctor called over his shoulder to Tegan and Turlough. "The bridge is either at one end of the station or the other. We'll just have to take our chances that it's at this end and not the other."  
  
Tegan was just getting used to the lessened gravity and the ease with which she was able to accomplish a six foot stride. Her pride bubble was burst as the Time Lord turned a particularly quick right angle by holding onto a railing. She flew past the corridor turn only to be grabbed by the Doctor to anchor her and turn her with ease. He smiled and asked in what she thought was his infuriating manner: "Are you all right?"  
  
"Perfectly. Just remember that I wasn't raised in space, Doctor."  
  
"It's not a hard thing to do," Turlough called, landing from a stride and holding onto the railing. "You'll get used to it after a while."  
  
Tegan frowned and balanced for a moment before joining the men in striding down the hall. As they turned another corridor, the Doctor tilted back his head and held a finger to his lips. "Shush."  
  
"But we weren't saying anything," Tegan pointed out unnecessarily.  
  
"Quiet," he warned and waved his hand in the air. Turlough tilted back his head as well, holding both hands in front of his crotch. After a few seconds he rolled his eyes. He heard it as well.the sound that the Doctor's stronger auditory system was hearing with increased acuity: a red alert alarm.  
  
"Not us," he turned to the Doctor.  
  
"I sincerely hope not," the Doctor answered, sighing. "But it could be my other self."  
  
"Lord," Tegan whispered. "But why isn't that alarm sounding here."  
  
The Doctor began to stride again and then slowed under a deactivated alarm speaker. With a smile, he fingered the sparked and blackened casing. "That, Turlough, looks to have been done with a sonic device."  
  
Turlough glanced up at the casing and moved aside a slightly hanging panel. "A powerful one."  
  
"Yes, quite," the Doctor answered, jumping slightly to bring his eyes level with the panel. "Looks rather like the damage caused by a sonic screwdriver."  
  
Tegan brightened. "Like yours.er.used to be."  
  
"Yes, well." the Doctor looked pained. "That's neither here nor there."  
  
"But if it's a sonic screwdriver then that means it's one of your former selves, right?" Tegan pressed.  
  
"Or one of my future selves, Tegan." He held up a finger before turning to walk down the hall again. "Mine might've been destroyed, but that doesn't mean that another didn't make one or acquire one later."  
  
"Wonderful."  
  
The Doctor reached out and pulled on Tegan's arm to get her moving down the hallway. "Come on, you two. This is obviously the way."  
  
**  
  
The future self that had caused the damage was, at that moment, slowly coming around. Before he opened his eyes, he could feel blood, both dried and wet, on his face, around one eye and down the bridge of his nose. His arms were also in a most uncomfortable position: tied behind his back across the spine of the metal chair.  
  
"Doesn't look much like a space terrorist," one the guards said.  
  
"I don't care what he looks like, I want answers as to what happened to my boy. And I'm quite sure that Smith wants answers about his daughters and the other guards want to know about their children as well. If he is responsible, I won't care what he looks like."  
  
"I've had that said before.learned a long time ago that looks really hold no weight, although." the Doctor opened his eyes slowly. ".in certain circles.look, can you let my arms free so that I can tend to my wounds?"  
  
"Your wounds?" Trenton shouted, leaning forward into the Doctor's face. "Your wounds? My child's missing and you're talking about a head wound?"  
  
"Well, it is rather hard to keep my eyes open to talk with you with blood dripping into them," the Doctor muttered. "I understand about your emotions. They took my child as well."  
  
"Your child?"  
  
"Well.one in my charge who does mean a great deal to me. Not my biological child," the Doctor answered, blinking to keep the blood at bay.  
  
"I don't believe him!" Smith shouted, pulling the gun and shoving it the Doctor's face, making him recoil ever so slightly.  
  
"Believe the truth!" the Doctor answered loudly, the muscles and veins in his neck standing out. "They took Michael as well as your children. I only just arrived here when."  
  
"Arrived?" Another guard pressed. "Arrived then? We have had no docking orders.no.communications."  
  
The Doctor grimaced, his brown hair falling into his eyes. He blew out a breath and arched his back a little. The gun, however, did not move from his face. "The TARDIS, I'm afraid, never asks for permission." He grinned widely. "Quite a lot like me, the old girl is."  
  
"He's daft."  
  
The Doctor blinked his eyes again; his grin did not waver. "Look.release me and I'll show you I am telling the truth. I've pictures..er.old fashioned ones."  
  
Trenton groaned, but a guard next to him grabbed his arm to pull Smith and he back. "Wait."  
  
"Is the Captain on his way down?" Smith croaked.  
  
"As fast as he can. He should be here any moment," the guard answered, shaking his head. He was the only unmarried, non-parent of the crew. "But I'm going to recommend that we throw this man in the brig. He might have information."  
  
"Information! He might be responsible." Trenton growled.  
  
"But if we kill him," the guard said, logically and sanely, "we won't find out anything anyway. Calm down.if we want to find your children, we have to keep calm."  
  
"And you are a security officer, Johnson?" Smith spat out.  
  
"Original schooling in philosophy and religion, sir." Johnson answered. "I won't let us kill him, but I'm not going to release him either."  
  
**  
  
Turlough rounded the corner only to be collared and pulled back by the Doctor. Ahead was a small group of men and women surrounding a man who was tied to a chair. The man wore a longish green coat and gray pants.  
  
"Hmm.seems we've found the party," the Doctor stated under his breath. The corridor looked in shambles with papers, furniture and weeping men and women.  
  
"The reason for the alarm?" Turlough asked, whispering back as he regained a place at the wall next to the Time Lord.  
  
Tegan wormed past the two men and glanced around the corner much to the Doctor's chagrin. After a second, she leaned back around. "The one in the chair has got to be you, Doc.he's got your dress sense. Regency clothes in space."  
  
The Doctor grimaced. "Quiet. What do you think happened here? Why did the alarms sound? What happened in that corridor?" he asked quietly, not really expecting an answer. He removed his hat and wrenched it between his hands. "And if you are correct, Tegan, what am I doing there and what I have got to do with this mess?"  
  
Tegan shook her head. "And why are most of the adults crying? Something momentous must have happened."  
  
"Exactly.why indeed," the Doctor half-pursed his lips in contemplation.  
  
"So?" Turlough asked, glancing sideways at the Time Lord.  
  
"We explore and investigate," the Doctor answered, turning around.  
  
"Oh will we, mate?" answered a guard right behind him, holding a gun up in the Doctor's face. "Not on my watch, let's move."  
  
Turlough immediately turned to walk along the corridor, his hands behind his neck. The Doctor glanced at Tegan as he went to do the same and found her glaring at the man with the gun. He twisted her by a hand at her back and sighed: "Now isn't the time to show your spirit, Tegan. Later. Our friend wants us to attend their little soirée and so we shall. Move along."  
  
**  
  
The man in the chair looked up at Turlough as he approached. There was a short flash in the man's eyes that showed recognition. Turlough seemed taken aback, and his worries were reinforced when in the next breath the man called out: "Turlough! So good to see you again!"  
  
The fifth Doctor squinted and lowered his hands from his neck. The man behind him shoved and the tall Time Lord stumbled a few steps. He drew himself up as he neared the band. "Oh no."  
  
Tegan appeared around the fifth Doctor and glanced at the Doctor in the chair. "You?"  
  
"Most definitely."  
  
"Undoubtedly." The stranger in the chair said quietly. After a tight swallow, he continued: "Hello again, Tegan."  
  
The Captain, who had arrived minutes before shook his head as if to clear it. "I want these four prisoners in the Central Brig five minutes ago. I'll be in to interrogate them soon."  
  
The eighth Doctor glanced up at the fifth and with a small nod to the side asked: "I don't suppose they will employ the mind probe, do you think?"  
  
** 


	4. Chapter 3

Trisk leaned back against the wall. The airlock door between the auxiliary cargo bays and the main access tunnels was sealed. She had watched as Yordin sealed the door with an ion binder and liquid titanium. They had taken the children down four levels and over two miles of corridors and catwalks. This portion of the station, and the project if the complete truth were to be told, had not been touched or inhabited since it had come online five years previously. There just had not been enough money to bring all of it online. The only sections where people existed were the personnel, communications, security, main docking, main cargo and the bridge. But here.here.  
  
In the bowels.  
  
They were hundreds of yards, and several levels away from the rest of the station. There had been enough room here for them to sneak on board. This was their destiny. This was their cause. This had to occur had to happen. Further in the room several of the children were whimpering.  
  
Children.  
  
That was their mission.this Genesis Project. The first mission by the united Terran government to conquer the skies. To conquer the heavens. To conquer space.  
  
If children could be conceived and born in zero gravity and be raised without injury, without imperfections and the very solar system, the very heavens could be conquered. There would be no need for Earth any longer. Whole generations would know nothing of their home planet.  
  
She had heard this since a child. But her heart had heard otherwise.  
  
To conceive, to grow, to bear and to mature in space, in the heavens would bring humans that much closer to God. It would make humans non-reliant on the home of the Garden: the original garden. Humans would fall away from God.  
  
It had been foreseen. She had felt this, known this. And joined the Great Plan.the Light of the Eternal Church. The Genesis Project aimed to throw humans away from God and the Great Plan would eradicate the Project and save mankind. After all, how close could humans evolve to God.how arrogant could a species become before God would smite it down?  
  
So she had joined and six years later had ended up here. Part of the Blessed Twenty, she stood here next to the chattel and was awarded the chance of becoming humanity's savior.  
  
They needed to only create a special place to enact the situation that was needed for the eradication of the problem.it was only a matter of time, she thought.  
  
**  
  
"Well this is a fine kettle of fish," the Doctor said, slapping his hands against the cool metal of the door. He bit his lip and slid his hands in his pockets and turned to face the other Doctor. The older looking man had his hands folded over his chest and he was leaning back against the wall. Turlough was seated similarly against the opposite wall on a similar cot. Tegan was standing near the front of the room with the Doctor, her Doctor as she called him, with her arms crossed over her chest.  
  
"Can't you do anything?" she demanded quietly. When she didn't receive an answer immediately, she leaned a little more toward him. "Well?"  
  
"Not without a sonic screwdriver."  
  
".and an ion bonder," the eighth Doctor answered, lifting his chin. "I have the sonic screwdriver, but I know you don't have the ionic bonder."  
  
"And you are correct," the fifth Doctor muttered and turned back toward the eighth Doctor with a wry smile. "You know, I have always hated meeting future selves, they always know a little more about me than I feel comfortable with. By the way, which regeneration are you?"  
  
"Seventh."  
  
"Good grief.eight?"  
  
"Well," the eighth Doctor leaned forward, his brown curly hair falling into his eyes. "If we had listened a little closer to Borusa, you would realize that there is always and will always and." he sighed. ".was always 13 of us. To say that I am the last to our knowledge at this time would be to deny the."  
  
"Interrelationship of time.yes yes." the fifth Doctor waved a single hand in the air. "But all that doesn't answer why you are here."  
  
"Yes." the eighth Doctor answered, shaking his head. "And right at this moment, I can't tell you."  
  
Tegan started at the wording. "Can't.or won't."  
  
"Can't, Tegan," the Eighth Doctor answered, his voice low and barely audible.  
  
"He knows no more than us, Tegan," the fifth Doctor said, walking to the cot and moving Turlough's legs out of the way to sit down. "Interlacing of time streams.he won't know any more than us if he has just happened here."  
  
"Gallifreyan mumbo-gumbo," Tegan groused, sitting down with a flop next to the Eighth Doctor. He looked sideways at her and smiled slightly. "What?"  
  
"You are the same way I remember you," he said quietly. "Give or take a laugh line or two around the eyes."  
  
Tegan opened her mouth, but decided against the urge to ask a question. "Never mind. But I do need to ask one thing. If the end of the universe always follows around him," she began pointing at the fifth Doctor, "what do you suppose awaits us with two of you around?"  
  
"Death and doom." Turlough offered.  
  
"Yes." the fifth Doctor drew out. "Turlough. That's enough. We should put our energy to figuring out what is going on outside."  
  
The eighth Doctor elbowed Tegan lightly and commented: "I always was a tad bit tetchy wasn't I ..as him, I mean." As Tegan gave a small smile, and the fifth Doctor showed his exasperation with a sigh, he continued: "What is happening out there, old chap, is that several people's children have been absconded with and there is mass hysteria occurring.quite understandably. I would react the same way."  
  
"Would you?" the fifth Doctor asked and then unfolded his arms. "Interesting. I suppose they have already assumed that you are responsible. It would be the usual for us. And where exactly is here."  
  
"Galactic Coordinates 56.902by 78 by 9-"  
  
"87.yes yes."  
  
"Commonly known as the Genesis Project," the eighth Doctor answered.  
  
"Of course." the fifth Doctor spun around, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I've been silly."  
  
Tegan rolled her eyes. "Silly about what, Doctor? And what is the Genesis Project?"  
  
"A project from early twenty second century Earth.a project to test child conceiving, bearing and rearing in space. It is the way that your people were finally able to make the final jump to interstellar/generational travel," the fifth Doctor answered.  
  
"They named it right," Tegan answered.  
  
With a grunt, Turlough rose and adjusted his school uniform. "Interesting. To have reached as far as Terran have by the 22th century, they would have a learning curve close to exponential."  
  
"Exponential exactly," the eighth Doctor agreed with a nod. "Very good, Turlough."  
  
The fifth Doctor rocked forward on his toes and nodded toward his older self. "I don't recall any mention of mass kidnapping or a wrench in the works of the Genesis Project. It was pronounced a success."  
  
"Again, correct," the eighth Doctor answered.  
  
"So.we have missing children, hysterical parents and another force that is working against the children, the parents and/or the project," the fifth Doctor answered, nodded, but the rest of their conversation was cut off as the door slid open to admit the Captain.  
  
**  
  
Georgie Trenton shook her head for the fifth time and nearly shouted at her husband. Her blond hair was out of its usual knot, wild and her blue eyes were tearing. It was more in frustration than in anger or sadness. "Captain Ternell.I'm telling you for the umpteenth time.this man was not involved. The men and women who were in the corridor wore black clothes.completely. Even their face masks were black, frosted. They were military. This man was not."  
  
Trenton reached in to comfort his wife and to try and pull her out.  
  
"Stop it, George, leave me be. I'm telling you, Captain.this was not the man. And don't tell me that I don't know military; I married one. I had heard voices in the hallway and I looked out thinking I could tell which way they went.they didn't hit me that hard. I saw this man crumpling to the floor. The others fled. He was not one of them."  
  
"Fine, fine, Mrs. Trenton, and the others? These three?"  
  
She lifted her chin defiantly. "No. No. They are not part of the group that took the children."  
  
The eighth Doctor smiled, winked and agreed. "As I told you, I am not one of the 'bad guys' here, as you American's so glibly put it."  
  
Sarah Markham was loud, however, as she put in her voice. The rest of the guards, as their own children had been kidnapped, were unwilling and unable to keep the other wives out. "But if they didn't do it, who did? We have had no dockings, no words, no boardings in a month. Is there someone out there who we don't know about? And how did these people get on board?"  
  
"Ah." the fifth Doctor answered from where he was tied to a chair. "..with that question, I might be of some assistance. You see we travel in a rather unconventional way."  
  
Smith turned and clipped the fifth Doctor on his shoulder. "We didn't ask you anything yet. You'll get your chance."  
  
Tegan flinched with the hit and shouted out a: "No."  
  
"I'm okay, Tegan."  
  
"Touching, very touching.now.if you showed the same feeling."  
  
"Look.we don't know where your children are," Tegan leaned as forward in the chair as her binds allowed. "If we did, we would tell you."  
  
"Quiet."  
  
"All this arguing, aside from giving me a headache, is not getting us anywhere. The longer we converse, the longer time it will take for us to find the children," the Eighth Doctor said, flipping his curls back out of his eyes. "Your lovely wife has said that I am not one of the wrong crowd, untie me and we'll get down to work on what is truly important here."  
  
The fifth Doctor nodded, wincing with his shoulders. "Untie us and we can clarify most of the issues.how we came aboard, what we are doing here and maybe we can help you find out where your children are."  
  
"Maybe?" the Eighth Doctor asked, glancing over his shoulders. "Really."  
  
"We will," the Fifth Doctor answered, decidedly. His blue eyes widened and he said the rest with a little breathless quality that betrayed a level of earnestness. Tegan recognized that look. She had received it often enough when he had failed to return her to Heathrow her first year with him. It made her forgive him, she wondered if it would work on them. "Untie us."  
  
The Captain looked down at the man he had clipped on the shoulder and at his accomplice in the other chair. These two seemed strange enough that it seemed that they might actually be telling the truth. He had a witness that said that they were not involved. However. "The question still remains about how you came onboard, you are still stowaways and/or terrorists in your own right. I'll release you. However, you will be under constant watch. I don't trust anyone until I am given reason to. You will show us your method of transports. And then, you will help us find the children. Are there any questions?"  
  
"One, sir.Captain is it?" the fifth Doctor asked, tilting his head back to train his eyes on the solider. "If we fail at any point in the process?"  
  
"Doctor." Turlough hissed.  
  
"Well.it's always nice to know the alternative."  
  
"The alternative, sir.is that you will be shot and spaced." With a waved arm, the ropes fell away. 


	5. Chapter 4

"Well.sometimes the best way to find out where someone has taken someone or something is to figure out why."  
  
"Sounds roundabout to me," Tegan answered her Doctor.  
  
The Time Lord was seated in front of a row of computers. With a flourish that she had grown to know well, he cracked his fingers and tested the keys. "You see, Tegan. Motive can tell more about a person than a personality scan ever could. Actions seem, like time lines, to follow logical, straightforward paths. If you can find any point on that line, you can work forwards or backwards, but most of the time, you will never leave that line."  
  
"Sounds like a trip around the Milky Way in that crate of yours," she answered, drawing up a chair of her own.  
  
He frowned, but pulled out his glasses. As they settled on his nose, he leaned forward to tap a sequence. As his older self bounded through the door in a whirl of green velvet, the computer emitted a low electronic whine. "Good Rassilon, old man, what are you doing over there? The computer IS innocent, you know. And I have never known a computer to give out information after it was tortured."  
  
Tegan stifled a smile and leaned back in the chair to watch the slightly older man approach. His brown curls bounced about his head and face with abandon. When he became aware that her eyes were on him, he slowed. He can't meet my eyes Tegan thought and frowned. "That is unusual," she said.  
  
"Yes, it is, isn't it," the fifth Doctor answered, leaning forward to press another couple of buttons. "In the twenty-second century, Terran communications in space were as fast as from one side of the planet to the other. I wonder why it is taking so long."  
  
The eighth Doctor approached the blond, younger man and leaned over the back of the chair. "Well."  
  
"Give it time."  
  
"We don't have time."  
  
"And you know something more than you are saying," the fifth Doctor answered and then glanced up at himself.  
  
"No." the eighth Doctor said, "I'm just ahead of you in the thought process. Must have been the knock to the head. I did, however, get information from the mothers. Something that is rather useful."  
  
"Such as?" the younger Doctor inquired, staring up at his other persona.  
  
The Eighth Doctor smiled and even Tegan was swayed by his charm. She wondered what this new man was like and remembered her own Doctor when he had gone through his 'change of life'. The one she traveled with had become her best friend and her protector as much as she was his. In her heart of hearts, she admitted that her Doctor was gentle and handsome enough to be attractive, but this Doctor.this new one.was full of vibrancy and life. It made him almost an irresistible force. With a hand agile with life, he produced a small tape recorder from his inside breast pocket.  
  
"You should listen to this," he said, his voice quiet, but forceful. "It will clarify quite a lot of issues."  
  
Tegan shook her head. "It is obvious that you know what is on there; why don't you just tell us?"  
  
"Tegan. Tegan, Tegan, Tegan." The older Doctor sighed, finally turning his full gaze on her. "You have not changed in the least. There is a reason I am asking you to listen to the tape."  
  
"He supposes that you and I will catch something that he didn't, Tegan," the fifth Doctor confided, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "Although why a persona of mine would suppose that is beyond me.I must be learning humility."  
  
"Time is running short," the Eighth Doctor stated. "Ego has no place when there is a time limit."  
  
The fifth Doctor smiled, reaching up to whip his glasses off of his face. "Ah.I see. Well.put it on."  
  
Tegan sighed and sat down next to her Doctor. The other persona balanced his hip against the computer bank and pressed the play button.  
  
Tape begins: (rustling in the background. Muffled voices and a bang, a grunt and a mumbled: Excuse me.)  
  
Doctor: (clearing of throat): What did you recognize of the attackers?  
  
Woman: (voice muffled and then clear, angry): What are you doing here? (Voice muffled, apparently turned away from the microphone): What is he doing here?  
  
Doctor: I am here to help you.  
  
Woman: (Gasps and then voice clear, breathing deeply): You did not take the children.  
  
Doctor: No, no, no. No, I didn't. (Louder): But I cannot do anything to help retrieve your children if you do not answer the question.  
  
Woman: They are dead, aren't they?  
  
Doctor: (heavy sigh): No. Now, listen to me, please. (Voice gentled): Where there is life, there is always hope. They have no reason to kill the children immediately. If they had, they would have done so here. No. There is another reason why they took the children. You must help me to find out what it is.  
  
Woman: (deep breath): I don't know who took them.  
  
Doctor: That is all right. We can figure it out together.I am sorry, I have been exceedingly rude. I am known as the Doctor.and you are?  
  
Woman: Gradia.  
  
Doctor: What a truly elegant name. Now.Gradia.you must help me to figure out who these people are that have taken your daughter. I'll tell you what I remember and you add to that.all right? Good. Now.I remember four adults: three men and one woman. They carried guns. They wore peculiar uniforms that looked centuries out of date.  
  
Woman: (sniffling): Yes.they were blue and they wore a small decal on their shoulders.a cross.  
  
Doctor: A cross? Hmm.now that is interesting. I'd missed that. What..could you describe it? Was it similar to a Christian cross?  
  
Woman: (muffled as through a piece of cloth): As like.that as not. The only reason I remember it is.the outline was of crimson flames. It was.  
  
Doctor: (excited, hurried): Strange? Very like an enigma, I suppose. Triggered somethin in your memory, I don't doubt. Did they say anything?  
  
Gradia: Yes.  
  
Doctor: Well?  
  
Gradia: When they were carrying Douglas out the door, I asked why. They answered Genesis.  
  
Doctor: Genesis.  
  
Gradia: That's right.  
  
Doctor: (deep breath) I see.  
  
Gradia: Does that help?  
  
Doctor: More than you know, fair Gradia. Thank you for your help.  
  
Gradia: Will you find them?  
  
Doctor: With a little research and some help..yes, yes I do believe it is possible. Jelly baby?  
  
The Doctor leaned forward, a long arm clad in green velvet reached out and turned off the tape. Tegan lifted an eyebrow but both men turned to contemplate her and then each other. "Well?" the eighth Doctor pressed.  
  
The fifth sighed. "I know the Christian bible."  
  
"As do I, but that will have no bearing if we don't know the place that the scriptures have taken in twenty-second century Earth," the eighth supplied.  
  
Tegan watched as her Doctor rubbed his neck. "Crimson flames around the Christian cross and the book of Genesis.interesting."  
  
"I agree."  
  
"Do you? Christian's are the minority on Earth in this century."  
  
Tegan shrugged, attempting to remain in the conversation. "So what.the religion has failed?"  
  
"No. Far from it, Tegan. Think. What happens when something is an underdog?"  
  
She turned to the strange Doctor and tilted her head to the side. "Everyone always cheers them on."  
  
"Very true," the eighth answered. "But that is what happens externally to the underdog. It is rather stirring, but it is what happens internally that counts more." He leaned closer, his shoulder against hers, his curls brushing the side of her face. "When something becomes oppressed, it gathers strength.its like carbon on your planet.if put under enough stress it comes out to a diamond. Faith is strong on Earth now. People are roused, driven from within."  
  
"What he means, Tegan," the fifth Doctor nudged her with his arm. ".is that there are sects of faith driven people on Earth that are almost blinded with fervor and might do things that are rather wrong, but those undertaking them might feel divinely led to accomplish them."  
  
"So." the eighth Doctor nodded over Tegan's head to the fifth. "It remains that we just need to figure out which sect is responsible."  
  
"And by doing that we can hazard a very educated idea of where they might be hiding the children."  
  
"Because if we know who they are, we might know what they are going to do, and if we know that, we will be able to find where they are holding the children, because they might have special needs."  
  
"You take my breath away, Tegan," the fifth Doctor answered, smiling.  
  
Tegan's smile was wide, but she sobered quickly. "But wouldn't they still be on the station?"  
  
"More than likely, Tegan. But it is a large station and we are running on limited time. It is also a possibility that they might have been removed from the station entirely." The eighth held up a finger. "Right. So.what we need to do.is mount a search on the intranet and communication lines."  
  
The fifth put his glasses back on his nose and nodded. He stretched his fingers. "Well.at least we do have a starting point. It should make this exercise a little easier. And I do so miss computer work."  
  
Tegan turned to face the screens as the Doctor on the other side of her tossed back his head with a snort. "Do you? Tedious business, but I suppose there is nothing for it. Tegan, dear, if you would, please boot up a computer on either side of your Doctor there and me. And do stand back."  
  
"Of all the."  
  
"We will need the room," the fifth Doctor supplied, making peace. "These clumsy machines will run slower than we will, I dare say. Having two a piece might speed up the search."  
  
Tegan did as bidden and stood back, her arms crossed over her chest. "At least I can see that your humility is still in tact."  
  
** 


	6. Chapter 5

Oh, Peri, Peri, Peri. I am a Time Lord, a member of the highest rank. I am the President of the High Council. I have powers the likes of which you could barely perceive. I am very different from you. I've lived the better part of a millennia. You, dear Peri, are barely more than a child to me. I've evolved past the use of foolish emotions to express myself, unlike you humans who wallow in such things. That said, there is one lesson to impart to you; there is one lesson you should learn. And that is: Be careful of the paths you choose, Peri, for the longer you live, the more chance you have of regret.  
  
-Sixth Doctor to Peri soon after his regeneration.  
  
  
  
Before Turlough entered the room, he could hear the strains of Jesu, Joy of Men's Desiring. The tenor voice sent shivers down his spine. Out of all the things he had learned and found lacking on Earth, their ability to express through song was not one of them. He took a deep breath and stood back as the door slid open. The singer was just reaching a high note and he closed his eyes to savor the beauty. The lad hadn't known the Doctor's predilection for classical music.  
  
He opened his eyes slowly and saw the Time Lords, his friend and the shorter, older version of him, bent over computer stations. Tegan sat off the side, holding a container that she sipped from regularly. As he neared the woman, she held a finger to her lips. It became clear to Turlough that both Doctor's were humming and singing along with the music quietly. Both men had light voices and an amazing ability to carry a tune.  
  
Turlough leaned against the desk where Tegan sat and nodded towards the Doctors. "Any luck?"  
  
"I haven't asked lately," Tegan whispered in response. She lowered her cup and gave a small smile. "Classical music isn't my cup of tea, but when I hear the two of them sing it-" she shrugged. "It is actually beautiful."  
  
"The phonograph? Where did that come from?" Turlough asked, suddenly interested in the peculiarities of the situation.  
  
"The older one's TARDIS. You should see that place. All Gothic if you ask me and dark. He's changed," Tegan took another sip of liquid. "It gave me something to do other than sit here and listen to them type and mutter."  
  
Turlough nodded and pushed away from the desk to approach the fifth Doctor. "What have you found out?"  
  
"Turlough. Wonderful to see you- when did you come in?" The Doctor sat back from the computer monitor and removed his glasses.  
  
"Just now, Doctor. The Commander of this station is heading this way for an update. He wants some answers. Have you found out anything?" The boy asked and hazarded a look at the monitor. Several small windows were open and were filled with several different Terran languages.  
  
"-soul's aspiring." The eighth Doctor quietly sang. He hummed a few further bars and, with a flourish, pressed a final button. Several sheets of plastic slipped out of a slot next to him. "All the information you want to know is here. Tegan, your exile is over, dear. Join us." He called in a sing song voice.  
  
The fifth Doctor rose from his seat and shrugged back into his frock coat as he stood. "Yes, well, Tegan, you were never exiled. We do, however, have the information that you are desiring, Turlough. It's been correlated and merged."  
  
"And written in some sort of maths equation," Tegan grumbled and handed the sheet to her Doctor. "Care to translate to proper English?"  
  
"Ah, well.that's Gallifreyan for you," the Doctor mumbled in confusion. "We programmed the mainframe to receive and write in Gallifreyan script; it sped the process. The translation circuit in the TARDIS won't translate it for you either. Bother."  
  
The eighth Doctor sprang out of his seat to grab and don his frock coat. "I can tell you quite quickly what it says. We've researched and located and infiltrated several Sects of Religion on Earth. That cross with the crimson flames at its base belongs-" he raised his voice as the Captain and Security Chief of the station entered the room. "It belongs to the Light of the Eternal Church."  
  
"Never heard of them," the Captain stated. He glanced sharply at the record player and Tegan turned it off, silencing the tenor voice.  
  
"Well, I have," the older Doctor said, his voice talking over the quieter Captain. "A rather interesting sect of the Christian Church, the LEC is. It has had the most amazing growth. The Church is little over twenty years old and yet has seen an exponential increase in membership."  
  
"Doctor," Turlough warned, quietly.  
  
The fifth Doctor interjected. "The sects main doctrine is that space exploration and the creation of space faring societies are in direct contradiction to what they feel is the Divine Guidance of God. They feel that humans aren't supposed to be in space. In short, they believe that when humans made the jump into space travel, they abandoned the Garden of Eden."  
  
"The Garden of Eden?" the Captain asked, shaking his head.  
  
"Earth," the Doctor answered quietly.  
  
"Yes, well," the Eighth Doctor muttered. "They also feel that space travel is akin to trying to be God. And that like the other mythical being you humans believe in that tried to be like your God, those that try to achieve divinity should be cast out of Heaven. Or out of the heavens, if you would rather."  
  
"I wouldn't thanks," Tegan groaned. "That sounds horrible."  
  
"Mythical being?" the Captain asked, clearly confused.  
  
"Satan," Turlough stated in a tone that betrayed his disbelief at the Captain's inability to know the answer to that question.  
  
"Exactly, Turlough," the fifth Doctor agreed. "Satan, the Devil, Mephistoles, Bezelbub. That particular chap goes by many different names throughout the ages of your world. Regardless, what my other self said is very much the crowning theology of the LEC."  
  
"So." Tegan frowned and turned to her Doctor. "So, they believe that this station is like a new age Sodom and Gomorra. Wonderful."  
  
"In a manner of speaking, yes. But in this case, they think that it's more of a problem that children are born here," the Doctor told her. He turned to his older self. "They view the children as the seed of evil here."  
  
"Their birth on the station seems to be the major problem," the Eighth Doctor answered, fixing his cravat. "Our major problem is that time is of the essence to find the children. How long exactly has it been since the children were taken? How long in Earth Standard Time?"  
  
"What other time is there?" the Captain asked.  
  
"Of course, how utterly silly of me," the Eighth Doctor said and straightened his coat. "I love humans, always thinking so parochially. Yes, yes - regardless, how long has it been?"  
  
The Security Chief frowned and glanced at his watch. "It's been a little over 18 hours."  
  
The Eighth Doctor nodded. "Now, translate that to time lapse on Earth. There is a slight adjustment, man. Do it."  
  
Tegan shrugged, uncomprehending and Turlough tapped her on the arm to explain. "The Genesis project is located outside the Moon's trajectory in orbit around Earth. With space travel, the further you are from the point of origin for time and the speed at which you are revolving affects the time difference. The faster your speed, relatively, the slower your time is, the larger the difference between the point of origin and you."  
  
She gave him her patented frown number 32 and turned to her Doctor. Her friend was already leaning towards her to comment: "It seems I have become rather hyper."  
  
"Oh never mind," the Eighth Doctor. He tapped his fingers against his lip rapidly and muttered under his breath for a minute and then spouted: "Twenty hours, sixteen minutes and, depending on the state of your watch battery, six seconds." He glanced at his other self and nodded. "It's worse than we suspected."  
  
"That isn't good," the fifth Doctor muttered with a barely contained horror. "That isn't good at all, I'm afraid."  
  
"What isn't good?" Tegan whispered. "How do you know?"  
  
"This sect is very particular about time schedules from what we've been able to determine," her Doctor explained.  
  
"And whereas six is the number of man, seven is divine," the Eighth Doctor continued. "And three is the number of God. Therefore-"  
  
"Three times seven- twenty-one," Turlough answered glumly and shared a sour glance with the Security Chief. "Are you sure?"  
  
The fifth Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Not sure, but let's say I, or rather, we have a hunch."  
  
"Enough talking," the Eighth called. "We've a sect to find on this station. Let's get started."  
  
** 


	7. Chapter 6

The Doctor barely had time to put the TARDIS in a stasis pattern before the child was running back across the floor of the console room to hug the Time Lord's legs. Tegan, through her shock and tears at being hugged and kissed by a child that called her his Momma, could see the wide smile on the child's face.  
  
"There, there," he said, reaching down to pat the child on his head and soothe him.  
  
The child laughed into the material of the Doctor's cricket pants and bounced on his feet to stare up at the Doctor's face. "You're back! Momma said you would come back. Didn't you, Momma?" he asked, turning to stare at Tegan. She remained crouched on the ground in shock.  
  
She tried to give a reassuring smile and nodded. "Of course the Doctor would come back if he said he would."  
  
The Doctor smiled down at the child. "Of course I'm back. What on Earth are you doing here?"  
  
"Uncle Thete brought me here for my birthday present. He said we were going to see something new. Momma wasn't too happy about it, but she let me go. Momma, you didn't have to come after me. Uncle would get me home. But I'm glad you brought Daddy back."  
  
The Doctor's hand stilled in the air over the boy's head and he speared Tegan with a stare. Her brown eyes were wide and she gasped. The boy continued to chatter. "I'm in school now."  
  
Tegan's hands grew cold and she rocked back on her feet and stood slowly. Then with measured steps, she stumbled to the console and held herself on weakening arms. The words Daddy and Uncle and the TARDIS and the physical exertion from the last two days made her weak, pained and tired. The Doctor sensed the change and shock in his friend not to mention his own confusion. He didn't want to alarm the child. "Do you still like cordial?"  
  
The boy's smile widened if that was possible and he nodded.  
  
"Well then.how about you have your Momma take you down to the kitchen and."  
  
With a shake of his head the boy nullified the Doctor's statement. "I know where the kitchen is! You used to take me there and Uncle Thete takes me to his kitchen too.Uncle Thete cooks a wicked meal. Are you coming too?"  
  
"In a minute. I have to play with the controls and I need your Momma to help me. Are you all right? All better?"  
  
The child gave a nod and ran for the door, past his mother whom he pulled down to kiss her on the cheek and out into the corridor. When the door safely shut behind the child and the Doctor had worked the internal communications to tell Turlough and the other guards that he was on his way and to get him, he glanced at Tegan.  
  
She already had held up her hands to ward off his questions or accusations. "I do not have children, Doc. I've never been pregnant."  
  
"He's obviously from your future," the Doctor said quietly. "I want to know why he calls me Daddy."  
  
"Rabbits! That's not important! Why is he here at all?!" She demanded, slamming her hands down on the console. "I'm gathering 'Uncle Thete' is you. Why the hell would you have brought my six year old son to a situation like this? I understand bringing another adult, but a child..alone?"  
  
The Doctor frowned and gave a harsh sigh. "I don't know, Tegan. I certainly wouldn't have. But I intend to find out."  
  
**  
  
Three hours earlier  
  
**  
  
Turlough had often heard Tegan's voice raised in irritation and aggravation. So he could tell he was walking into a 'situation' when he pushed open the door of the TARDIS. He straightened his tie and rolled his eyes before he entered. He had learned the best way to handle his female friend was to be calm and collected in the face of her ire. If nothing else, he felt like he had a leg up on her. The door opened and he entered the darker, more gothic console room of the older Doctor. He saw his Doctor, the fair one, with his hands held up as if to appease his companion. The shorter Doctor stood nearby, his hands fiddling with several knobs.  
  
"I don't care what he says," Tegan said, harshly. She stopped and shook her head. "What you say.oh rabbits! How can anyone have an argument with you when there are two of you around?"  
  
"Yes, well, Tegan," the older Time Lord said happily. "That's often why people don't have arguments on Gallifrey. Several different incarnations and suddenly all the fun is gone in interaction."  
  
The Fifth Doctor rolled his eyes and glanced at his elder self. "If you remember anything of her, you would know not to antagonize her."  
  
Tegan harumphed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Still, I don't care what he's said, I'm going with you."  
  
"Well, he does have a point, Tegan," the Fifth Doctor answered with a grunt. "They do have firepower."  
  
"And you're taking guards with you that have guns," she replied. "I know guns aren't your style. And since when do you worry about me going with you into dangerous situations. You need someone who is good with children with you. Are you good with children?" she accused.  
  
The Eighth Doctor quirked an eyebrow and spared a glance at his younger self. "Now she has the point. Take it from me, she is good with children. We, on the other hand, need practice."  
  
"You aren't a help, you know," the Fifth Doctor stated, as he jammed his hands into his pockets. He lowered his head and sighed. "All right, Tegan. All right. You can come with me. You can be in charge of the children when we find them."  
  
Turlough pulled at his cuffs to straighten them and then calmly called out: "If you are all quite through with the arguing that you all seem to love to do.we've wasted fifteen minutes. And time is precious."  
  
The Fifth Doctor nodded and started for the door. Tegan followed hard at his heels. When they began to pass through the door, he stopped and turned around. "And you'll man home base?"  
  
The Eighth Doctor frowned and nodded quickly. "Two TARDIS' would be quicker for gathering the children, but."  
  
"It's the same time/space track signature," the Fifth Doctor agreed. "Yes, you do see the problem."  
  
"Yes and since one of us has to stay with the officers as.collateral.I suppose it will be me," the Eighth Doctor growled. "Use the communicator. I'll see if I can get a heat signature set up for the children. And their respiratory patterns; children breathe at a higher rate.yes, yes.." The Eighth Doctor straightened up to run around the console. "Yes, of course. Take the communicator. Patch through a line. Of course, why didn't I see that sooner? Well, what are you waiting for." he asked, turning around, the tails of his green velvet frock coat flying wide.  
  
The Fifth Doctor sighed and lifted an eyebrow, but was pulled out the door by Turlough. "Come on, you can have a personality crisis later, Doctor."  
  
"Come on," Tegan added her voice to her friend's and grabbed at the Doctor's hand. The last thing the Fifth Doctor heard from his elder self was as complex statement: "I know Tegan. You handle her your way; I handle her mine."  
  
The younger man stopped and glanced back at his older self, not quite understanding from where that statement had come.  
  
**  
  
It took only a moment to situate the guards in the stark whiteness of the console room. The Doctor was muttering into the communicator with his older self. "What? Come again?"  
  
"Galactic 23.567 by 453.287. Use the common time, old chap. Come on."  
  
The Fifth Doctor mumbled a few words under his breath and then adjusted the coordinates. "Right. We're off." He flicked the switch and waited, punching the console when it didn't leave immediately. "Travel time three minutes," he informed his friends. Turlough nodded, leaning on the console. The guards, through their shock, gave their assent as well.  
  
**  
  
"Ah, gentlemen, come in," the Eighth Doctor called grandly. The Commander and the Head of Security stumbled in through the door. "And do mind the dimensional instability at the interface. I'm just now making sure my younger self lands on a dime. We have located the children."  
  
The Commander strolled through the console room, his gait only stalling as he saw the grandness of the interior. "This ship.it isn't."  
  
"Human? No. Definitely not. But, come on, you are out here to meet new space races and all that. Though I admit this station is rather Babylon 5ish if you must know. Ah, they should be dematerializing any moment."  
  
"Dematerializing," the Head of Security asked with a disbelieving shake of his head. "Do I want to ask?"  
  
"This is a TARDIS. It stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. It travels through time and space, traversing a vortex. But that isn't relevant to the situation at hand," the Doctor said, his head twitching up quickly to fix the man with a stare. "I've tweaked the TARDIS' exterior scanners and widened the range to encompass most of the station that is not inhabited. We were correct in that the children had not been taken off of the station."  
  
"But our scanners," the Commander began, but stopped and snatched his hand back as the vibration from the TARDIS thrummed under his hand. He righted off of the console immediately. "Our scanners didn't pick up anything."  
  
"Yes, well.and you are working with twenty second century WSO technology so it is to be expected. No," the Doctor said as he walked around the console with a jaunty step. "No, no. Your scanners wouldn't pick up the temperature signature as they have the children near the power station on the second level on the outside rim. No, I've adjusted the TARDIS scanners to pick up their respiratory patterns and cross-tabulated with a temperature signature.ah. My other self has landed." He frowned and tapped harshly at the console until a low whine was heard from the ship. "And relatively close. I do hope they are a bit quiet about it all."  
  
**  
  
The door opened slowly and the Doctor poked his head out, glancing around. The section of the station that the TARDIS had set down in was darker and cooler than the rest of the station. He could sense that much on his skin. Tegan helped to confirm his suspicions when she muttered. "It's like the bloody Arctic here."  
  
"Hmm, space is cold, Tegan," he gave her helpfully. "Now, be quiet. We've landed near by."  
  
He stepped completely from the time machine and stood in the chill and gloom, glancing about. She followed him, changed for once, in a jumper with running boots. The two guards stepped from the TARDIS and into the gloom with the happiness of men returned to their home environment. Turlough followed, locking the door.  
  
"Do you recognize where we are?" the Doctor asked, quietly, to the nearest guard. "And I would advise the guns to be set on stun. There are children about, you know."  
  
The guard nodded. "We're in the power annex on the outer rim of the station. This section wasn't due to open for another year at least. Not until the Gamma expansion."  
  
"Hmm," the Time Lord replied. "I'm quite sure we landed close to the mark my other self gave us. Turlough?"  
  
The Trion pulled a small device out of his pocket and twisted about, frowning. Tegan thought he held the device like a talisman. "Increasing temperature about .2 parsecs in this direction," he supplied. "But the respiratory patterns.I can't do a similar match."  
  
"No," the Doctor sighed. "Well.temperature spike would definitely lead us in the right direction. Right. That way, you lot," he whispered. "And keep your eyes open."  
  
The Doctor walked calmly ahead of the guards. Turlough joined him at the head, muttering when to change direction. Tegan stayed between the two guards, suspiciously glancing about.  
  
"That's odd," Turlough frowned after a moment. "The temperature gauge suddenly spiked cold."  
  
"Are you sure you know how to use that thing?" Tegan pressed. She glanced over her shoulder back the way they had come.  
  
"It's an arcane piece of equipment. Of course I can use it," Turlough argued. "I'm working it right. But I'm suddenly not picking up the signatures."  
  
"You don't think their.dead.do you?" Tegan asked, her voice trembling.  
  
"No." the Doctor reassured. "They've moved the children into one of the shielded areas. We're running out of time."  
  
He waved them on, striding with less care and more purpose in the way they had been going to suddenly draw up short. Tegan barreled into his back, barely holding back her screech. They were on a catwalk over an incredibly large open space. Below them were the cooling areas for the nuclear reactors and the central core. Twenty or so men and women were below standing in a circle and in the middle of them was a large cross with flame drawn on the floor. "Oh no," she muttered. 


	8. Chapter 7

The Eighth Doctor felt the weight of stares on the back of his head and spared a glance over his shoulder to see his younger self and Tegan at the door. He had a sudden image of Tegan as he had left her just a day previous. She had been standing with Amy, her hands looped over her daughter's shoulders, bidding them adieu. Her eyes had clouded when he had gathered his frock coat and had offered to have her and Amy along as well.  
  
He had told her it was just going to be a small jaunt to the Eye of Orion. He had promised not to do anything else. She had known something was going on. He could see it in the way that her brown eyes widened and their color swirled from a warm chocolate to a wary cocoa. As he had pulled at his lapels to straighten them, he had once again felt the powerful wave of regret he had had when he regenerated into his Sixth self. And a large part of him wanted to hold her as he had before. But they were different people and the relationship had different dynamics; she didn't accept his touches, his embraces the same way she had the Doctor to whom she was more attuned.  
  
He missed that sometimes.  
  
But this Tegan, standing at the door with her arms crossed over her chest, was younger and fierier. He remembered being in awe of her. He still was but for different reasons. Then he had found that her sense of loyalty and moral correctness unerring and entirely awe-inspiring. He had liked it as much as he liked her sense of humor and as much as he hated their sparring sessions.  
  
"The children are well?" he asked.  
  
"Quite," came the rumble from his other self.  
  
"No thanks to you," Tegan bit out, her voice heavy with her disbelief and hurt. "I suppose it slipped your mind that you had brought my son on board this station."  
  
He straightened and turned, leaning back against the console. "Tegan."  
  
She lifted her eyebrows in feigned interest and shifted her weight. "I don't understand how if you know him well enough or even cared about him enough that he calls you.him.Daddy how you could bring him into something like this. Even walk out of the TARDIS."  
  
"Yes, I would rather like that question attended to as well," his Fifth self muttered and strode into the TARDIS. His strides brought him down the steps quickly and Tegan followed. At the bottom of the steps, he reached out to catch her elbow. "Stay calm, Tegan."  
  
"Calm? You're just as angry as I am," she sputtered. "How can you tell me to stay calm?"  
  
The Eighth Doctor lowered his eyes. "There's a great deal I have to explain without revealing your future to you or to him, Tegan."  
  
"Well, you can start now," she nearly growled. As she neared, he could see the tracks of her tears and the new ones that were gathering at the corners.  
  
"I would give her some support," the Eighth Doctor muttered to his Fifth incarnation, turning from her angry gaze to flick a few buttons. "Where is Mike?"  
  
"Sleeping," the Fifth Doctor answered. "In my TARDIS." The elder Doctor winced from the anger in his voice. "Turlough will let us know when he wakes."  
  
"He's not harmed?" he asked quietly, turning back to spare himself a glance.  
  
"How, I don't know," Tegan rocketed back. "What with the guns and firing. You weren't there. You don't know what it was like for them.for us."  
  
"Oh, but I do," the Eighth Doctor responded. "I can assure you; I do. I was there." He pointed to his younger incarnation.  
  
**  
  
The Doctor joined Tegan at the railing. The height of the catwalk afforded an excellent view of the center and the four large reactors that flanked it. He looked down for a moment and the grasped Tegan's arm to move her back from the edge. His shock and anger at the situation showed plainly on his young face. "They're down there somewhere.the children.probably in one of the shielded reactor casings." Turlough joined them, casting his steel-colored gaze around the reactor room. "Hmm, and they have quite some firepower down there. Those are hand- held laser cannons," he whispered.  
  
The Doctor gave his friend a stare. "I'm not going to ask how you know that."  
  
"What are they going for in those outfits?" Tegan asked, sarcastically.  
  
"Hmm," he frowned and motioned for his friend to follow as he walked along the catwalk. "Those are ceremonial robes, Tegan. They are worn, surprisingly, for ceremonies."  
  
Turlough jogged to keep up with them, edging Tegan toward the inside. "If we're correct about the calculation of time, Doctor," he glanced at his watch. "We have less than ten minutes."  
  
With a nod, the Doctor began to run. "Yes, I do rather understand the need to rush."  
  
**  
  
Turlough followed the Doctor, mirroring the steps that his friend was using. He had to admit that although he despaired of the Time Lord's sanity when he had turned down the gun offer, he was impressed by his friend's mind for strategy. As they stopped running, Turlough glanced behind him to wave the guards back against the side of the reactor casing. The Doctor pressed flat against the side of the housing and held up a finger to keep him quiet.  
  
Tegan joined them a moment later, skidding to a stop next to them.  
  
"Hmm," the Doctor frowned, his voice barely above a breath. "At least thirty."  
  
Turlough nodded and motioned to the guards to keep well back. "Well," he returned, whispering in the Doctor's ear, "we weren't planning on taking them on you know. They're wearing 20 photon lasers under their robes. I would advise as little contact as possible with them."  
  
Tegan frowned at the both of them and squeezed between both of their shoulders to quickly glance about the area. "No children."  
  
"Obviously being prepared for their grand entrance," the Doctor returned. "And as the front door isn't being watched, as it were; the guards are too busy 'getting religion', I suggest we use it. Follow me, as quietly as possible."  
  
**  
  
Trisk could feel the surge of incredible eroticism she always received when she put on her robes. The crimson silk felt the same as it always did, both on Earth and in space. The bright golden cross made her feel as though she was wearing light itself. And the flames that outlined her cross made her feel as though she was part of cleansing fire.  
  
The children sniffling behind her drifted away as she began to chant with the others around her. She felt the growing feeling of acceptance, of fervor. Closing her eyes, she succumbed to the rising sound around her.  
  
**  
  
"Oh Lord," Tegan breathed as she entered reactor housing. Several children huddled in the back of the housing, holding onto one another. She could see that several had bruises, but none had major injuries. She slowly approached the group, quietly telling them she was a friend. Immediately a small girl disengaged from the others and came over to bury her face in Tegan's legs. She hugged the child and made a count. The Doctor joined her, frowning. "There's at least twelve," she murmured quietly. "What's your name, dear?"  
  
The girl didn't answer Tegan, but whimpered into her trousers. The Doctor retreated to the door, obviously uneasy around the children. Turlough was crouching near the door, watching the group outside with wary eyes. The Doctor admitted that he was both surprised and impressed with Turlough's attention to military matters. He made a mental note to talk about the boy's past when they were out of danger. "What do you think, hmm?"  
  
Turlough rubbed his lips with his fingers and glanced at the other guards. "I think we're too short on time. Back door?" "I highly doubt it," the Doctor muttered, squatting next to Turlough. "Sometimes I truly miss K-9," he admitted with a sigh. Turning quickly he contemplated the guards. "Do you think you could present some sort of a distraction without getting yourselves killed? Possibly back towards the TARDIS and then draw them off to the side, deeper into the corridors?"  
  
The guards gave a hesitant nod after contemplating each other.  
  
The Doctor frowned momentarily and tapped Turlough on the arm. "Tegan has to stay with the children. I shall go with the guards. Get her and the children back to the TARDIS."  
  
Turlough glanced back at his friend who now had three children crowded around her. "I'm definitely better with guns than children. And I'm terrible with guns. I'll go with the guards; you take the children back the way of the TARDIS. We'll get back there as quickly as possible."  
  
"It'll be dangerous," the Doctor warned.  
  
"So will herding twelve young children," Turlough whispered back with a frown. "We'll go.and we'll shoot off a laser round. When you hear it, watch out the door and go when you can. Believe it or not, Doctor, I do have some head for strategy."  
  
The Doctor extended his hand to shake Turlough's. Turlough glanced out the door, waved on the guards and snuck back out into the darkness. Tegan stared after him and then gave the Doctor a small frown. "He chose," the Doctor whispered. "How are the children?"  
  
"As far as I can tell, they're fine," she whispered in return. "But how are we going to get them out once the way is clear? These children are five or so years old, Doc."  
  
"Carry, push, plead," he responded, picking up a little boy. The lad turned his face into his shoulder. The Doctor absently rubbed at the boy's head and nodded towards the front of the reactor casing. Several children followed him, one grabbed at his free hand. Tegan joined him holding a small child in her arms. With a nod, she let him know that she was fine.  
  
**  
  
The Doctor adjusted his cravat and then calmly walked down the steps from the console into the depths of the room. As he walked, he invited the others to join him. "Please. I always feel long talks are better completed in comfort; don't you?"  
  
Tegan frowned and remained where she was, her arms crossed over her chest. The Fifth Doctor reached out to gently lead her to the seating arrangement with his hand at the small of her back. The Eighth Doctor sat with a small bounce in the large overstuffed chair in the corner and graciously extended his hand to show them to sit on the couch.  
  
"I'd much prefer to stand," she spat out, glaring at the Eighth Doctor. He wilted a little under her stare, giving her a gentle, I'm sorry, smile. The Fifth Doctor sighed and sat, leading her down by her hand. They sat together on the couch, crowded a little. The elder Doctor watched as his younger self self-consciously moved a little away from his companion. Oh what a difference ten years would make, he thought ruefully.  
  
"Let's hear him out," the Fifth Doctor encouraged. He fixed his elder self with a glance. "I would rather like to hear what he comes up with for an explanation. I always surprise myself with my depth of imagination in those things."  
  
"Ah, sarcasm," the Eighth Doctor whispered. "I had forgotten that I liked to use it. What a sharp tongue I had. Yes, Tegan, do sit. And, I do believe you should give her support."  
  
The Fifth Doctor glanced at Tegan and sat back against the couch. "Yes well.how about you begin."  
  
The Eighth Doctor sat back against the chair and folded his hands over his crossed knees. "I shall tell you what I know. For I do know that you, we, won't remember it until the time is right. You know how these Limitation Effects work. As for Tegan, this is a touch with her own future and shall forget as well. The only thing that will be unknown is the future. Your future, Tegan, and my own, as it should be."  
  
"Very poetic," she commented, her eyes showing her lack of belief.  
  
He turned his eyes to her, watching as she bravely and strongly met his stare. His voice was harsher than he anticipated when he began to speak:  
  
"You'll leave me someday, Tegan. Someday when the time is right," he smiled as he saw intricate body language in his younger self that showed his unease with that subject. "And you'll go on and marry, happily. You'll live a normal life. You'll love and be loved. And you'll have two wonderful children."  
  
The Fifth Doctor opened his mouth to interrupt, but the Eighth Doctor shook his head. "She will remember none of this. You will remember none of this. I remembered none of this until recently," he turned his attention back to Tegan. "A beautiful and brilliant daughter and a very curious and loving son. And one day, I," he nodded to the Fifth Doctor, "will return to you. And after a time, you will have a close friendship. So close that you will consider and will to a certain extent help raise the children.  
  
"Although Amy will never get the hang of calling you Daddy, Mike will. And often," the Eighth Doctor leaned forward. "And it will convince you to be their father, in name and action," he said quietly. ":In name, action and by the Terran legal system. I won't tell you how it won't come to be, but it won't. But it will never stop you from loving the children. We will visit them, through all of the incarnations between you and I. You will see Mike walk, change his diaper, teach him to ride a bike, hang his Christmas shopping and butter his toast. Tegan will welcome us into her family with open arms under many faces and we will be known by many names.  
  
"And then, after spending Amy's birthday, you will wake up one moment and realize that you had seen Mike on this station in that situation, in danger, and understand that it is your past and that you can't not do what is there. We're a slave to time. Time Lords, ha!" he laughed bitterly. "We don't lord over time; it controls us."  
  
"Temporal paradox," the Fifth Doctor whispered, his eyes widening. "Great Rassilon."  
  
The Eighth Doctor nodded. "Granted small in the Universal scheme of things, but yes, a temporal paradox. I saw me as you with Mike; I have to have Mike here as me so you can see him. What happens after this, neither one of us knows."  
  
"So what," Tegan growled. "You brought my son here in order to make sure your life isn't interrupted?"  
  
"Temporal paradoxes are more than just an interruption," the Fifth Doctor gently explained. "They are very dangerous. But he is right in saying this is very small compared with the universe at large."  
  
"But it is small compared to the universe," Tegan replied back harshly.  
  
"What happens when you take a loose thread on a knitted cloak, Tegan?" the Eight Doctor began, mumbling his question with his head inclined. "And you pull on that thread, you worry at it. It unravels. That one thread can unravel the whole thing."  
  
"But we're talking." she argued.  
  
"About your life and mine," the Fifth Doctor replied, turning his sad blue eyes toward her.  
  
"Exactly," the Eighth Doctor continued. He rose to pace the floor, the tails of his green frock coat fluttering like a maddened bird about his legs. "There will be a tickling at the back of my mind in the future when I meet you again, Tegan. A need to be close to you, to protect you. It probably comes from this little snafoo we see ourselves in now. And the fact that we are with you at a crucial time in your life will seem small and trifle. Our influence on your children will seem loving, but normal. But his," he turned to point at himself. "His love for your children and the way that you support him will launch him back into the vortex with renewed purpose. And your children.will benefit from that. Your children are destined to do great things, Tegan. You are destined to go great things. All of this, your children, their children, our purpose, and the influence and things that we do in the universe are all affected by this. Without this.temporal paradox.to muddy our way, we might never do any of it. The cloak will unravel."  
  
She swallowed and looked to her friend. After searching his gaze, she turned her attention back to the other Time Lord. "Does Mike.does he.die?"  
  
"No," the Eighth Doctor smiled. "I remember that much."  
  
The Fifth Doctor nodded and sighed. "You say that your and Tegan's relationship is strong?"  
  
"Very. Weaker than what it was when I was you," the Eighth Doctor explained. "But so very strong now." The younger, fair version of the Time Lord contemplated his other self. "And that relationship when you return Mike?"  
  
The Eighth Doctor nodded, biting his lip. "Yes, yes, well, you would expect it to change drastically, knowing our friend."  
  
"Damn straight," Tegan whispered, both in pain and anger. "I won't remember any of this, you say. Then I won't understand."  
  
"..a thing about this whole situation, no," the Eighth Doctor agreed. "I have a feeling I will be in great danger of losing your affection. And believe me, Tegan, that was probably the major thing that almost had me fighting this paradox. I can't imagine not being a part of your life or theirs."  
  
"You made that decision," the girl replied, sorrowfully. Her eyes remained downcast.  
  
He nodded quickly, aware that she could not see him. "As you said, Tegan, it is small in the way of the Universe, but large in my life. But." he sighed. "To choose between personal pain and the unraveling of a future that might have far reaching implications.I had to choose as I did."  
  
Her gaze lifted to spear him with a glance. "I'm going to go check on Michael, then," she said, coolly and rose. Within moments, she had left the TARDIS, silence in her wake.  
  
"How close." the Fifth Doctor muttered to the painful silence that rose around them.  
  
"Extremely. You will love her in your future," the Eighth Doctor replied, staring at the closing doors of the TARDIS. "And her children will adore you and the feeling will be mutual. I truly don't know what awaits me back on Earth in her time. I only hope that there is some redemption planned by the powers that be."  
  
"We could have chosen to thumb our noses at the paradox," the Fifth Doctor stated, rising as well. His skin color was paler than usual. "Brave the future. We can't love. I've realized by my age that it's beyond Gallifreyans to feel that way."  
  
"You will understand it. You and I both know it doesn't work that way," the Eighth Doctor frowned. "I have a feeling I will be bidding fare-the- well to a relationship that defined you and molded others when I return. And there is nothing I can do but tell myself I was a slave to time." He contemplated his other self. "I do believe the little boy in you and I that has always wished the best in the Universe has just been made to grow up. I don't believe I like that feeling."  
  
** 


	9. Chapter 8

The sound of the shot made Tegan jump. She had been expecting something very Flash Gordonish in sound. Instead she heard a rushing wind and then one of the chanters feel to the side, clearly unconscious, more than likely dead. And then the rest scattered. Their crimson robes flittered like ribbons of blood at their legs.  
  
The Doctor cupped the child's head to his shoulder and nodded in the direction that they had come. "Go Tegan, we'll keep the children between you and I. Don't look back. Run as fast as you can with them. Towards the TARDIS. Safety is first issue. Hide if you have to. Do I make myself clear?" his whisper had a pleading tone imbedded and she reacted instinctively. Holding the hand of the child at her side and keeping the other child in her arms quiet by calm whispers, she quickly left the security of the reactor housing and out into the dark, cool of the unused reactor.  
  
Breaking the Doctor's order, she turned to see him reach down and scoop another child up in his arm and began to run in her direction. The other children followed her like a gaggle of geese.  
  
"Please God, let Turlough and the others have them away from the TARDIS," she whispered to the ether.  
  
**  
  
"Where did the shot come from?"  
  
"This direction!"  
  
Robes were thrown aside, feet pounded against the floor. Guns appeared from under the religious regalia. Turlough tripped up the front runner and dove for the gun. He wanted to be armed and almost cursed the predisposition of the Doctor not to have weaponry. As he came up from his crouch, he hit the recovering runner over the back of the head and turned to catch up the other guards. They formed a straight firing line and gave a return rally of shots.  
  
"We have to pull them away from the TARDIS," he hissed.  
  
"This way!" one of the guards whispered in return.  
  
They backed down a corridor adjacent to the TARDIS firing their guns in an effort to draw the fire from the time machine.  
  
**  
  
The Doctor watched Tegan running ahead of him. The child she held cried softly. Ahead of her, around her, he saw the TARDIS. He saw as she slid into the door and opened it with her key. He spied Turlough out of the corner of his eye and called for his friends.  
  
**  
  
"I suppose we should set out to see about subduing the cult," Turlough muttered quietly. He had, almost regretfully, handed over the gun to another guard. Although he liked the feeling of protection, the cool feel of the gun in his hand brought back too many memories. He wiped his palm on his trousers and walked over to Tegan.  
  
She stood by the door of the TARDIS, her head in her hand. She wasn't saying anything, which was surprising for her. When he stepped to her side, she lifted glassy eyes to look at him. The repeat of the statement only brought a shrug to her shoulders. "I don't know what is going on any more," she said, plainly and shrugged again. "Do what you please. I'm checking on the children."  
  
He gaped at her retreating back, unsure what he had said or not said to bring about that reaction in her. He rubbed at the back of his neck, shaking his head until he saw a pair of white cricket boots stepping up next to his shoes. "Gone to our TARDIS, is she?" the Doctor asked quietly.  
  
Turlough nodded and glanced up and around. Most of the parents had their children back, he was in the center of jubilant reunions. "Are we helping them with the cult?"  
  
The Doctor frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets harshly. A deep breath brought a sigh out of his throat. "No, believe it or not, Turlough. I do believe our lesson was learned here. We can leave."  
  
"Our lesson?" the boy looked confused and squinted his eyes at the Doctor. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Ah, well." the Time Lord sighed. To Turlough, he seemed in shock. "Let's just say that some things have occurred and they are a bitter pill." The Doctor grimaced and began to walk toward the TARDIS, settling his hat on his head. Before he could enter the time machine, however, Tegan exited, carrying Michael.  
  
He stopped short and sighed, seeing the tears in her eyes. Michael was obviously confused and worried, reaching out for him as he neared. Tegan released him slowly, letting the Doctor take the boy in his arms.  
  
"Daddy?" Michael whispered. "What's wrong with Momma?"  
  
The Doctor let the boy take his hat off his head and gave him a little smile. "She just found out that Uncle Thete wants to take you back home. We're going to go in my TARDIS and meet you there. You would like that, wouldn't you?" he asked gently.  
  
Mike nodded enthusiastically and gave his mother a kiss. Tegan waved good- bye to him sadly and retreated into the TARDIS with her arms crossed protectively over her chest.  
  
The Doctor attempted calm conversation with Mike until they arrived at Eight's TARDIS. The other Time Lord stepped out and caught Mike in a laughing hug as the boy bounced happily in Five's arms. "Are you ready to go back, Mike?" he asked, chipper and happy.  
  
"Am I ever! Do I get to push the button this time?" Mike asked loudly as the Eighth Doctor set him down on the ground.  
  
"Of course: a promise is a promise," the Eighth Doctor laughed. Mike turned and embraced the Fifth Doctor's legs and smiled up at the Time Lord.  
  
"I'll see you again soon, Daddy, right? We're going to fly my kite, just like you said," the boy stated, giving him a tight hug.  
  
"As soon as I can," the Fifth Doctor said, smiling widely. "Now run along. I know how exciting it is to press that button."  
  
The Eighth Doctor knelt and brushed down the back of Mike's shirt and then sent him scurrying into the TARDIS with a pat to his behind. "Run along, you."  
  
When the boy disappeared into the darkness, the Fifth Doctor turned his thoughtful gaze to his elder incarnation. "He'll never see me me again, will he?"  
  
"No," the Eighth Doctor said, with a tinge of regret. "No. You've regenerated in his time line. A pity."  
  
"And you aren't his 'Daddy'," the Fifth Doctor kept his gaze on his elder incarnation as he stood.  
  
"No, Tegan has the right idea that to explain Time Lord and time travel to young children is inadvisable. And after all, I am you, but not you you. She loves me, but not with the same.passion.she did you. No, she and I have an understanding and she is looking for others to fill that void in her life and her children's lives. I am their 'Uncle'."  
  
"But he's traveled in the TARDIS." the Fifth Doctor whispered. With a shake of his head, he continued, louder. "No, quite right. A shame that I didn't know of him or was known to him; this meeting might have been different, I might have had things to say to him, tell him."  
  
"You told Amy and Mike almost daily that they meant the world to you," the Eighth Doctor reassured. "But, old boy, I must go and you must deal with Tegan. You know as I do that once the TARDIS' have disengaged from the same geographic proximity the paradox and Limitation Effect will cause you to forget. Talk to her before that. And I must get Mike home and deal with that Tegan."  
  
The Fifth Doctor held out his hand and shook the older Time Lord's hand, feeling the tingle of self-awareness travel up his arm. "I was happy, wasn't I?"  
  
"Tremendously," the Eighth stated. "Take care of that body. You do have years, you know. Until next time," he completed, inclined his head and turned, disappearing into his TARDIS.  
  
**  
  
The Fifth Doctor walked into the TARDIS and hung his hat up on the stand by the rotor. There was no sign of Turlough, but Tegan was standing near the view screen, staring out at the other TARDIS.  
  
"So that's it," she said, plainly. "That's just it. He's going back."  
  
"To you," the Fifth Doctor quietly finished her sentence. "Yes, I gather he'll have quite a fight on his hands."  
  
"Wouldn't you?" she demanded, and turned to him. Her eyes were full of tears. "Playing with that boy's life.with my life."  
  
He sighed and closed the door and then walked across the console room to lay his hands on her shoulders. "He's making sure your life occurs just as it should. If this hadn't happened then whatever transpires between you and I in the future and your children and I might never happen."  
  
"But you don't know that," she demanded.  
  
"No, but I do know that the probability is lower that it would without it. He's making a sacrifice of sorts, you know, Tegan. I saw his eyes."  
  
"Oho. And your self-pity is supposed to stop me from being angry at you."  
  
"I saw his eyes, Tegan. Apparently whatever happens between you and I means a great deal to him, to me. Having a child call you Daddy, Tegan." he shook his head and leaned back against the rotor. "And he's giving that up by taking Mike back to you and fighting with you. He knows that you'll more than likely slam the door on him interacting with your children and interacting with you. It's going to cause him a great deal of pain. But he's doing it to make sure that what happens in his past and our future happens."  
  
"I still don't entirely understand," she tearfully said, turning her large eyes to him.  
  
"Nor do I think you should," he agreed. "Just understand that for that future to happen when your son will call me Daddy, this had to happen."  
  
Tegan looked down and away as the Doctor walked around the console to dial up new coordinates. "Here we go," he said quietly and hit the dematerialization button. As they left the area, the memories of what had transpired over the last day slowly dissolved in their minds.  
  
When Turlough walked into the console room later, he was confronted with two happy friends.  
  
** 


End file.
